FOND DU LAC - Three University of Wisconsin campuses merging into one to serve the Lake Winnebago region will retain their own names, for the time being.

A restructuring of the UW System planned for July 1 brings together University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh with the nearest two-year campuses: UW-Fond du Lac and UW-Fox Valley in Appleton.

All 13 of the state’s two-year colleges are part of the planned merger, with seven of the four-year campuses taking on regional branch campuses.

UW-Oshkosh Chancellor Andrew Leavitt told Fond du Lac County Board members during a presentation Wednesday that retaining the identity and culture of the local universities will make or break the merger, if they don’t get it right.

The reorganization is pending approval by the federal Higher Learning Commission, and 45 working groups have been formed to address a multitude of structural and organizational changes, Leavitt said. Local advisory groups are comprised of county executives, students, community members and alumni.

While the issue of pending name changes remains up for discussion, both locally and system-wide, a committee’s recommendation was “that we drive on with the current names for now,” said Martin Rudd, regional executive officer and dean at UW-Fond du Lac, UW-Fox Valley and UW-Manitowoc.

For example, Fond du Lac will be known as “UW-Fond du Lac, a campus of UW-Oshkosh.”

All future name changes will have to include "University of Wisconsin," be approved and supported by the city and/or county that created each two-year entity, and engage the community in the decision-making, UW System President Ray Cross said earlier this year. Final decisions are expected by December.

“We are rejecting labels like ‘main campus’ and ‘satellite campuses’ — we are not taking that approach,” Rudd said. “This will far exceed what any campus has offered as far as driving innovation, talent and prosperity in this region because it connects similar values.”

As part of the restructuring, Rudd will lose his deanship of UW-Manitowoc as it joins with UW-Green Bay and two-year campuses in Marinette and Sheboygan counties.

Curriculum changes will be need-driven, rolled out over a course of time and fashioned around the types of careers and training needed by businesses and industry in this specific region, the UW leaders said. Baccalaureate and master’s degree program offerings will be upped at the two-year campuses.

Students will not see any differences, Rudd said. Tuition will remain frozen, as it has been for the past eight years at two-year campuses and five years at UW-Oshkosh, Rudd said. All faculty will be retained at their rank and tenure.

Students applying for admission to a two-year UW college this fall will still apply to that campus, rather than its four-year partner institution.

Leavitt said he expects it will take a few years to achieve the plan's full vision. A large driver of change to create regional clusters is declining enrollment, and the key goal is to increase educational attainment rates in all parts of the Fox Valley, Leavitt said.

UW Colleges have faced year-over-year declines in application submissions since 2012-13 and are currently down about 17 percent over five years, according to the UW system’s restructuring website.

Chancellors at the four-year campuses still don't know what their budgets for their regional clusters will look like. Many two-year campuses have structural budget deficits that will have to be absorbed by the four-year parent campus.

Leavitt told the Fond du Lac County Board that he plans to earn community support for the campus restructure through performance.

“We will never assume, we will always earn. We will not let you down, I can tell you this right now,” he said.